Welcome to the UC Davis CRF

The Contained Research Facility (CRF) provides a secure environment for research on emerging and invasive plant pests. These exotic pests, including arthropods, plant pathogens, nematodes, and weeds, pose huge potential losses for California agriculture and the statewide economy, and threaten natural ecosystems. Examples of current agricultural threats include light brown apple moth, Mediterranean fruit fly, and glassy-winged sharp shooter and Pierce’s disease. The CRF is the first of its kind in the western US. This facility provides researchers with the opportunity to work with exotic plant pests and diseases that otherwise could not be studied under normal laboratory conditions. The facility was designed and constructed to ensure a highly controlled and contained research environment so experimental organisms inside the facility are not released to the outside.

Research at the CRF will focus on

• factors involved in plant pathogen transmission, with emphasis on the host plant, pathogen, and vector, to discover short and long term control strategies;
• the basic biology of exotic plant pest organisms to better understand factors involved in exotic pest outbreaks, including their avenues of introduction, establishment, and expansion;
• potential biological control agents as candidates to manage exotic pest and disease organisms, including insect predators and parasites, weed-feeding species and microbial antagonists;
• exotic plant pests that have newly arrived in California;
• exotic plant pests and disease organisms of interest, that are not currently found in California; and
• plant pests under state quarantine, with the permission of the proper regulatory agency.

The CRF offers laboratory, greenhouse and growth chamber space to UC researchers on a project by project basis. Please contact us for more detailed information.